Methods — The Solidarity of Detachment

Abstract

In this chapter, I pick up the thread from my analytical strategy in order to describe how I practically implemented an empirical study guided by compassion, as was the ambition. Finding this answer required that I think “out of the box” methodologically and dare find inspiration in a number of different sources. I ended up drawing on the following approaches: anthropological schools of multi-sited ethnography, medical discussions about sympathy versus empathy, and therapeutic studies of communication based on solidarity. What all these lines of thought have in common is an interest in pursuing compassionate involvement while still avoiding both emotional transgression and naïveté. This particular challenge is familiar to anthropologists who mostly generate knowledge based on a highly intimate interaction with the actors in the field. Generally, fieldworkers grapple with the tensions of how to couple intimacy with the distancing movement of science: there is a wish to exercise solidarity, yet there is awareness that detachment is required.